Making the rounds in Ridgewood NJ, Freeholder Maura DeNicola , Senate Candidate Joe Kyrillos , Ridgewood Councilwomen Bernie Walsh , Freeholder Rob and Free holder candidate Hermansen
In a world of wild politics, N.J.’s Senate race is surprisingly tame
Running for statewide office in New Jersey tends to bring out the worst in people, or at least some of the nastiest campaign ads this side of Willie Horton.
There was Republican Doug Forrester’s campaign in 2005, with an ad reminding voters of the bad blood between Jon Corzine and his ex-wife.
There was the 1996 senate race — then seen as a national model for mud-slinging — that included an ad by Democrat Robert Torricelli featuring seniors in wheelchairs warning that Dick Zimmer would cut their Medicare.
And there were scraps in which New Jersey candidates called each other too old, sympathetic to drunken drivers, crooked, incompetent and liars — complete with noses that grew just like Pinocchio’s. (Rizzo, The Star-Ledger)
Ted Marvel pays $4,900 in annual property taxes on his 1,000-square-foot home in the heart of Collingswood.
In fact, his monthly tax bill – $407 – is starting to rival what he pays in principal and interest on his mortgage. Said Marvel: “They’re going to meet soon.”
In the new millennium, New Jersey’s property taxes, the highest in the nation, are exploring new heights.
“It’s astronomical,” said Marvel. “It’s crazy.” That, too, his Garden State neighbors affirm.
Even as incomes have dropped (4.4 percent), and overall taxable value has fallen in a third of the towns, an Inquirer analysis showed that from 2000 to 2011, average tax bills in Burlington, Camden, and Gloucester Counties rose 44 percent. And that’s adjusted for inflation. The average bill jumped from $3,964, to $5,691. (Wood, The Philadelphia Inquirer)
Co-founder of Kiss Peter Criss at Bookends Wednesday, October 24th @ 6:00pm
Co-founding Drummer of KISS, Peter Criss will sign his new book: Makeup to Breakup
Books available Oct.23rd
Appearing authors will only autograph books purchased at Bookends and must have valid Bookends Receipt.Availability & pricing for all autographed books subject to change.Bookends cannot guarantee that the books that are Autographed will always be First Printings.
Autographed books purchased at Bookends are non-returnable.
While we try to insure that all customers coming to Bookends’ signings will meet authors and get their books signed, we cannot guarantee that all attendees will meet the author or that all books will be signed. We cannot control inclement weather, author travel schedules or authors who leave prematurely.
Bookends, 211 E. Ridgewood Avenue, Ridgewood, NJ 07450 201-445-0726
Social Security payroll taxes set to go up in 2013 for 163 million workers
Oct 21, 11:31 AM (ET)
By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Barack Obama isn’t talking about it and neither is Mitt Romney. But come January, 163 million workers can expect to feel the pinch of a big tax increase regardless of who wins the election.
A temporary reduction in Social Security payroll taxes is due to expire at the end of the year and hardly anyone in Washington is pushing to extend it. Neither Obama nor Romney has proposed an extension, and it probably wouldn’t get through Congress anyway, with lawmakers in both parties down on the idea.
Even Republicans who have sworn off tax increases have little appetite to prevent one that will cost a typical worker about $1,000 a year, and two-earner family with six-figure incomes as much as $4,500.
Why are so many politicians sour on continuing the payroll tax break?
Ridgewood Police: Second attempted Luring Incident reported
October 21,2012
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Police investigating luring report that a man tried to accost 8-year-old boy in a restaurant bathroom on Sunday.The boy was in the restroom of the Daily Treat on East Ridgewood Avenue at around 2 p.m. when a man tapped him on the shoulder and said “come with me.”
In his statement to Police the boy said the man was wearing a black button-down shirt, blue jeans and gray work boots. He was carrying a black motorcycle helmet with a visor.
Sunday’s incident was the latest in a string of luring incidents throughout North Jersey and has Bergen county on edge . Four luring reports have been made in New Milford since Thursday, and nearly a dozen have been reported in North Jersey since mid-September.
Similar reports of strangers approaching children have been reported to police in Westwood, Maywood, Hackensack, Hawthorne, Washington Township, Fair Lawn, Fairview and one previous in Ridgewood.
Anyone with information about this incident or similar incidents is encouraged to contact the Ridgewood Police Department 201-652-3900 or detective Doug Henky at 201-251-4536
5 Crucial Questions for the Presidential Foreign Policy Debate
Amy Payne
October 22, 2012 at 8:45 am
Tonight’s final presidential debate will focus solely on foreign policy. Moderator Bob Schieffer announced that the topics will be: “America’s Role in the World,” “Our Longest War—Afghanistan and Pakistan,” “Red Lines—Israel and Iran,” “The Changing Middle East and the New Face of Terrorism,” and “The Rise of China and Tomorrow’s World.” Heritage’s foreign policy experts have written a series of tipsheets for prepping on each of these issues, featured on our Debate 2012 page and linked below.
Join us tonight at 9 p.m. ET to watch the debate live on the Debate 2012 page. In addition to the live stream, our experts will be live blogging, and you can join in the conversation on Twitter.
Our experts have submitted five questions they consider vital to the foreign policy debate:
Given that the Taliban movement still poses a threat to the futures of both Afghanistan and Pakistan, how do you plan to ensure stability in the region and prevent either country from serving as a base for international terrorists intent on attacking the U.S.?
Over the last several years, the Chinese have become increasingly aggressive in pressing territorial claims against their neighbors, threatening to upend peace, security, and the free flow of commerce in the region. What policies will your Administration undertake in the first year to make clear to this new Chinese leadership that the U.S. will remain committed to its friends and treaty allies in the western Pacific?
The U.S. is not the world’s policeman, but it is a leader in world affairs. Can we maintain our influence and protect our vital national interests around the world (such as the “pivot to Asia” that the Administration has announced) if defense cuts continue? Do these cuts encourage adversaries and extremists (as in Libya) to test U.S. resolve?
In the months since Osama bin Laden was killed, al-Qaeda franchises in Iraq, Yemen, Syria, and North Africa have grown stronger and continue to pose a significant threat to Americans. Yet the U.S. appears to be stuck in a “whack-a-mole” tape loop. How should U.S. counterterrorism policy be changed to effectively counter this evolving threat?
Although sanctions have been ratcheted up against Iran, a new study by the Congressional Research Service has concluded that sanctions have not succeeded in accomplishing their principal objective “to compel Iran to verifiably confine its nuclear program to purely peaceful uses.” Tehran has accelerated its enrichment of uranium and is closer than ever to a nuclear weapon. Can sanctions alone stop these trends? What else should the U.S. do to end Iran’s nuclear defiance?
Luring cases are part of new reality across North Jersey
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2012 LAST UPDATED: SATURDAY OCTOBER 20, 2012, 2:13 PM
BY REBECCA D. O’BRIEN AND DEENA YELLIN
STAFF WRITERS
THE RECORD
At New Milford police headquarters on Friday, after the town became the latest in Bergen County to have an attempted child luring reported, cops got to talking about the way things used to be.
Police in four towns have released sketches based on incidents reported in their jurisdictions. The sketch shown was released by the Westwood Police Department on Thursday.
“We used to ride our bikes to school,” Chief Frank Papapietro said. “We would be in the woods all day long. It was just a different time.”
These days, the streets around schools in New Milford and many other towns in North Jersey — where kids once nonchalantly walked or biked without chaperones — are clogged with cars dropping students at the schools’ doorsteps. Kids are tethered to parents by cellphones and carefully managed schedules. At home and in school, children learn about “stranger danger.”
The concern over the steady stream of luring incidents in recent weeks — New Milford reported a second one on Friday afternoon — highlights the current anxiety over raising kids in Bergen County, known for its safe streets and good schools. With nearly a dozen incidents and four police sketches since mid-September, school districts have posted public alerts. National and international media have picked up the story of a “child abductor” and “North Jersey pervert” on the loose.
No child has been abducted during this string of attempted lurings.
File photo Joe Kyrillos speaking with a Ridgewood voter
Meet Joe Kyrillos, a nice guy trying to unseat powerful U.S. Sen. Menendez
As Joe Kyrillos makes his way through New Jersey shaking hands, making speeches and debating his articulate opponent in the race for U.S. Senate, you often hear voters say they don’t know him — even though he’s been a veteran of Jersey politics for decades.
Well, here’s your chance at the Real Joe.
First off a few basics, taken from having spent weeks covering his campaign, and from interviews with friends and colleagues, opponents and associates.
“Which Vision of America Will We Leave to Our Children and Grandchildren?” – Presented by Nick Rago
Election 2012 – A War of Ideologies – October 24 Wednesday Evening, October 24, at 7:30 p.m. 79 Pascack Road, Township of Washington, NJ 07676
Hosted by Knights of Columbus – Mother Seton Council #5427
What is happening in America? Our First Amendment Rights of Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Religion are under attack. Our children’s futures have been mortgaged by unconscionable spending. The Constitution, as well as centuries of Judeo-Christian traditions and mores, have been cast aside in the name of political correctness by a progressive secularism that is eroding the very foundations of our republic.
Members of both political parties have abdicated their roles as stewards of the American Dream. The salvation of this nation, a nation founded under a Divine Providence to forever be a beacon of hope for the rest of the world, rests squarely on the shoulders of you, the citizens of this country.
If we truly believe that “…government derives its just powers from the consent of the governed…” then we must accept the responsibility to engage ourselves in the political issues facing us as a nation.
Violent crime jumps 18 percent in 2011, first rise in nearly 20 years
Published October 18, 2012
Associated Press
WASHINGTON – Violent crimes “unexpectedly” jumped 18 percent last year, the first rise in nearly 20 years, and property crimes rose for first time in a decade. But academic experts said the new government data fall short of signaling a reversal of the long decline in crime.
The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics reported Wednesday that the increase in the number of violent crimes was the result of an upward swing in simple assaults, which rose 22 percent, from 4 million in 2010 to 5 million last year. The incidence of rape, sexual assault and robbery remained largely unchanged, as did serious violent crime involving weapons or injury.
Obama campaign accepted foreign Web donation — and may be hiding more
By ISABEL VINCENT and MELISSA KLEIN
Last Updated: 10:11 AM, October 21, 2012
Posted: 12:34 AM, October 21, 2012
The Obama re-election campaign has accepted at least one foreign donation in violation of the law — and does nothing to check on the provenance of millions of dollars in other contributions, a watchdog group alleges.
Chris Walker, a British citizen who lives outside London, told The Post he was able to make two $5 donations to President Obama’s campaign this month through its Web site while a similar attempt to give Mitt Romney cash was rejected. It is illegal to knowingly solicit or accept money from foreign citizens.
Walker said he used his actual street address in England but entered Arkansas as his state with the Schenectady, NY, ZIP code of 12345.
’NET PROFIT: President Obama and Hillary Clinton are joined at a 2011 state dinner by Robert Roche (to Clinton’s right), who registered the site Obama.com, which directs visitors to a donation page.
’NET PROFIT: President Obama and Hillary Clinton are joined at a 2011 state dinner by Robert Roche (to Clinton’s right), who registered the site Obama.com, which directs visitors to a donation page.
“When I did Romney’s, the payment got rejected on the grounds that the address on the card did not match the address that I entered,” he said. “Romney’s Web site wanted the code from the back of card. Barack Obama’s didn’t.”
In September, Obama’s campaign took in more than $2 million from donors who provided no ZIP code or incomplete ZIP codes, according to data posted on the Federal Election Commission Web site.
The Obama campaign said the FEC data was the result of “a minor technical error.”
“All the ZIP codes and numbers are real and can be verified,” spokesman Michael Czin said.
The Obama campaign’s apparent lack of safeguards makes it possible to violate the law, says a report released by the Government Accountability Institute, a Florida-based watchdog group.
The report found that one Obama site — Obama.com — gets almost half of its traffic from foreign computer addresses. The site directs users to an Obama donation page.
Sportscaster, Len Berman Monday at Bookends October 22nd at 4:00pm
Emmy Award Winning Sportscaster, Len Berman will sign his new book: The Greatest Moments in Sports: Upsets & Underdogs
Actress Jane Seymour Monday. at Bookends October 22nd at 7:00pm
Emmy Award & Golden Globe winning Actress Jane Seymour will sign her new books: Open Hearts Family and Good King Wenceslas
Books available Oct. 2nd
Bookends is a legendary New Jersey Landmark! We are known for our incredible author events and have hosted well over
1,000 authors in the past 15 years!
Appearing authors will only autograph books purchased at Bookends and must have valid Bookends Receipt.Availability & pricing for all autographed books subject to change.
Bookends cannot guarantee that the books that are Autographed will always be First Printings.Autographed books purchased at Bookends are non-returnable.
While we try to insure that all customers coming to Bookends’ signings will meet authors and get their books signed, we cannot guarantee that all attendees will meet the author or that all books will be signed. We cannot control inclement weather, author travel schedules or authors who leave prematurely.
Bookends, 211 E. Ridgewood Avenue, Ridgewood, NJ 07450 201-445-0726
Salute to Our Nation’s Veterans
Fri, October 26, 2012
Time: 8:00 PM – 10:30 PM
West Side Presbyterian Church, Intersection of W. Ridgewood Avenue and S. Monroe Street
The season opening concert will feature the Rutgers University Symphony Band and guest soloist Jason Ham (Euphonium, U.S. Military Academy Band). John Philip Sousa IV will be a special guest at the concert.
Valley , Englewood start new challenge to HUMC North hospital opening
Thursday, October 4, 2012
BY STEPHANIE NODA
STAFF WRITER
Northern Valley Suburbanite
ENGLEWOOD — Englewood Hospital and Medical Center and Valley Hospital of Ridgewood continued efforts to block the opening of HackensackUMC at Pascack Valley at a recent Appellate Division of Superior Court meeting on Sept. 23, saying the county is already well served by existing non-profit hospitals.
“Amidst ongoing challenges of healthcare reform, declining patient admissions, reduced hospital reimbursement, a tough economy, and low population growth in Bergen County, a new acute-care hospital is unnecessary and wrong for the healthcare system in Bergen County,” said Maria Margiotta, director of Marketing and Communication for Englewood Hospital, in a statement.
A certification of need – a state law that decides whether there is an inherent need for a health care facility – was approved for the new Westwood-based hospital by Health and Human Services Commissioner Mary O’Dowd on Feb. 27. The Westwood location will act as a satellite facility for Hackensack University and Medical Center and have 128 beds.
Ever since the certification of need was approved by O’Dowd in February, Hackensack Hospital has been diligently preparing for the reopening of the hospital, which is scheduled for the second quarter of 2013, said Chad Melton, CEO of HackensackUMC at Pascack Valley, in a statement.
“The overwhelming majority of area residents are very supportive and welcome the improved access to essential healthcare services it will provide,” said Melton. “We are continuing to work closely with the communities in the Pascack Valley and Northern Valley to ensure that much needed access to healthcare returns to this region.”
Sports authority still gridlocked over impact of American Dream on traffic
The state authority reviewing the American Dream Meadowlands project does not yet have a timetable for its decision in the fight over the proposal’s traffic impact, its head said today.
The New Jersey Sports & Exposition Authority met publicly today for the first time since a contentious three-hour hearing last week, during which board members heard vastly different estimates of how much traffic the project would add on game days for the New York Jets and Giants. Experts for the teams, which oppose an expansion of the project, said nearly 8,000 new cars would be on the road in the peak hour after a game, while developer Triple Five said that total is closer to 60. (Burd, NJBIZ)
